>> i think the obama administration needs to make a big decision. do you confer recognition on national council as legitimate authority of the syrian people. the reason for doing this, they need to push assad out as quickly as possible. he's holding on, and if something doesn't change in this equilibrium he may hold on for months on end. this war could spread in lebanon, jordan, iraq, that's not in the interest of the united states. they need to reinforce this coalition. that's one reason. the other is one of self interest. it's likely that at some point assad is going to fall. this particular group or some element of it will take over as the government of syria. we should want to have influence there given the importance of syria, and the importance of syria to iran. because if we can separate a new syrian government from the iranians that would be a major strategic advantage to the united states. >> eliot: michael, it certainly does seem that the trendline is not favorable to assad, that's good news. but is this another instance where we've been l